Wrapping Up the Screenwriting Book Club

[Jessica]

Hello,

Thanks to everyone who participated in Screenwriting over the past few months! It looks like there were some great conversations here, and we hope you learned a lot about the genre. We’d also like to say thank you to your moderator, Daniel Noah. His expertise and enthusiasm for this book club have been invaluable.

This group will run until May 31, after which it will live in Recent Discussions.

Many of you may wonder why we’re making this change. The simple answer is that we're tying to make the best fit for us, for Gotham, and of course for the particpants here. We believe we've spread the conversation out into too many groups, which has has made the back and forth not as lively as we need.

And so, with that in mind, we're thrilled to be able to announce a new approach in what is now the Writing Fiction Book Club. This weekend, Writing Fiction will become The Writing Room, an open conversation about the craft of writing in all its genres (including nonfiction and memoir) and a place for you to continue to post your work for peer review. Gotham’s Brandi Reissenweber will continue to be the moderator of this book club, and will post new topics every week that will get and keep our creative juices flowing. We'll talk about what makes us write, what stops of from writing, and how to get the most from the craft. We hope you come on over beginning Monday to explore this new discussion.

In addition, we’re happy to announce the coming debut of a new Book Club: Getting Published. Led by Susan Driscoll of iUniverse, this is the place to learn and ask advice about the often overwhelming world of publishing. The new Getting Published book club will launch on June 4.

So keep writing -- and thanks again!

[Brendan_M_Burns]

C'est la vie...

Cheers to Daniel. You needed this group of morons like a hole in the head. I'll keep my eyes peeled for your byline in Variety and IMDB.

You know, come to think of it, this whole "book club experience" would make a great screenplay -- the hopeful launch, the enthusiastic and helpful moderator, the domination of the discussion by a few rabid participants, the tepid response from new users, the futile attempts at resurrection, and finally the evil multinational overlord shutting the whole thing down. Hey, maybe I could discuss it this weekend in The Writing Room!

[crAZRick]

this was fun, while it lasted...

now, we get herded like cattle from our special and specialized 'club' into the generic version... it's sorta like when the short-bus pre-schoolers graduate to regular public school, get lost in the mix, and become worthless crackwhores by the time they turn 12...



disenchantment at it finest...

[Jessica]

Hi again,

I just want to say thanks again for your participation in this group. We're sure The Writing Room will be a vibrant conversation about writing in all genres. It's a more open discussion, so you have the power to start a new message and choose what you talk about!

To that end, even though this board will still be available in the Recent Discussions category, if there are any active threads in this board that you'd like us to move to The Writing Room, let us know. Just send a Private Message to BillP (he's a book club editor), copy and paste a link to the thread you want moved, and we'll make sure your conversation reaches the audience over there.

Hope to see you there!

Message Edited by BillP on 05-25-2007 12:33 PM

[Ian]

Thanks for the conversations and great lessons. Do we access this new group the same way?

Cheers,
Ian

[Jessica]

---

Ian wrote: Thanks for the conversations and great lessons. Do we access this new group the same way? Cheers, Ian

---

Hi Ian,
Yes ... just go to The Writing Room and start reading & posting.
See you there.
Jessica

[angus]

So the Screenwriting Book Club is closing up shop. I am really sorry to hear that. Thank you Daniel, Jessica, and everybody. It’s been a pleasure. See you in Hollywood...or Sundance...

[danielnoah]

So they pulled the plug. The Screenwriting Bookclub closes at the end of the month. If you have any final questions for me, post them before then and I'll leave you with some parting words. Also, watch the main page at Gotham Writers' Workshop. In the next few weeks we’ll be announcing a brand new interactive screenwriting blog not dissimilar to this one, and moderated by yours truly. I hope you’ll join me there for some new moves and grooves.

I’ve enjoyed this experience a great deal. You’ve taught me a lot with your questions and comments. I hope you’ve learned in kind. I’d like to leave you with the best advice about writing I ever received. Like a great screenplay, it’s both concise and deeply meaningful. In fact, it’s just two, simple words:

Writers write.

Best of luck to everyone.

Sincerely,

- Daniel Noah

[Brendan_M_Burns]

---

angus wrote:
So the Screenwriting Book Club is closing up shop. I am really sorry to hear that. Thank you Daniel, Jessica, and everybody. It’s been a pleasure. See you in Hollywood...or Sundance...

---

Angus,

This may be a little off-topic, but is this Jack-in-the-Box/Carl's Jr. lawsuit causing you great distress? Are your friends snickering behind their hands and asking you to point to your Angus?

[Brendan_M_Burns]

---

danielnoah wrote:
I’d like to leave you with the best advice about writing I ever received. Like a great screenplay, it’s both concise and deeply meaningful. In fact, it’s just two, simple words:

Writers write.

---

Daniel,

Thanks again for reminding those of us who say we want to write, think about writing constantly, dream up characters and plots (on and off the toilet), and seem to do everything but actually set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and get the damn thing out of our heads and onto the page, what we are and what we are not.

Those two words hit it dead-on. If you are getting stories, screenplays, articles, or poems down on paper, you are a writer. You may not be a good writer, but that's subjective. If you're not producing anything, whatever else you may be, no matter how otherwise literate or brilliant, you're simply not a writer.

I was once a writer -- published, read, and even paid -- and hope I will be once again before they throw dirt on me.

Cheers and best wishes. See you over at Gotham.

[crAZRick]

is the Gotham blog/board going to be free? or will we have to jump thru hoops, pay $325 for someone to blow sunshine up our arses for 6 or 10 weeks, before patting us on our pretty little heads, wishing us well and sending us back into the cold cruel world of screenplay-writing as ill-prepared as we were when we signed-on, less $325?

not to be skeptical or pessimistic, just to know more details and information of what else is coming up from the mods and members of this quaint little club

[danielnoah]

---

crAZRick wrote:
is the Gotham blog/board going to be free? or will we have to jump thru hoops, pay $325 for someone to blow sunshine up our arses for 6 or 10 weeks, before patting us on our pretty little heads, wishing us well and sending us back into the cold cruel world of screenplay-writing as ill-prepared as we were when we signed-on, less $325?

not to be skeptical or pessimistic, just to know more details and information of what else is coming up from the mods and members of this quaint little club

---

We're still working out the details, but I'm 99% sure it will be open to any and all.

[Pamela_B]

---

Jessica wrote:
Hello,

Thanks to everyone who participated in Screenwriting over the past few months! It looks like there were some great conversations here, and we hope you learned a lot about the genre. We’d also like to say thank you to your moderator, Daniel Noah. His expertise and enthusiasm for this book club have been invaluable.

This group will run until May 31, after which it will live in Recent Discussions.

Many of you may wonder why we’re making this change. The simple answer is that we're tying to make the best fit for us, for Gotham, and of course for the particpants here. We believe we've spread the conversation out into too many groups, which has has made the back and forth not as lively as we need.

And so, with that in mind, we're thrilled to be able to announce a new approach in what is now the Writing Fiction Book Club. This weekend, Writing Fiction will become The Writing Room, an open conversation about the craft of writing in all its genres (including nonfiction and memoir) and a place for you to continue to post your work for peer review. Gotham’s Brandi Reissenweber will continue to be the moderator of this book club, and will post new topics every week that will get and keep our creative juices flowing. We'll talk about what makes us write, what stops of from writing, and how to get the most from the craft. We hope you come on over beginning Monday to explore this new discussion.

In addition, we’re happy to announce the coming debut of a new Book Club: Getting Published. Led by Susan Driscoll of iUniverse, this is the place to learn and ask advice about the often overwhelming world of publishing. The new Getting Published book club will launch on June 4.

So keep writing -- and thanks again!

---

Hi,

Well, I guess I've fallen behind yet again! I visited the new rooms about writing and getting published. Since I just finished chapter 1 of my screenwriting book, I'd like to post my writing exercises. But I'm assuming no one will be in here anymore to offer any peer review.

Hellooooooo? Anyone out there? I'll take any suggestions you have. Thanks!

Pamela_B